A known ink jet recording apparatus ejects ink droplets from a plurality of nozzles defined in a recording head that is moving in a scanning direction, to record an image onto a recording medium, such as a recording sheet, being conveyed in a conveyance path.
In the known inkjet recording apparatus, rollers for conveying the recording medium are disposed at respective positions along the conveyance path. A gear train including a plurality of gears that are engaged with one another is often adopted to transmit a driving force from a drive source to each roller.
In the known inkjet recording apparatus, a maintenance unit for performing maintenance of the recording head is disposed at a position that is outer than the conveyance path in the scanning direction and where the maintenance unit is allowed to face the recording head. For example, the maintenance of the recording head performed by the maintenance unit includes a purge in which ink is sucked from the nozzles of the recording head to prevent ink from drying in the recording head or to prevent the nozzles from being clogged with ink, or to eliminate air bubbles from the recording head.
The above-described inkjet recording apparatus uses the gear train to transmit the driving force from the drive source to each roller and includes the maintenance unit to perform maintenance of the recording head.